Elevated Kin-Directed Altruism Emerges in Childhood and Is Linked to Feminine Gender Expression in Samoan Fa’afafine: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Androphilia refers to sexual attraction toward adult males, whereas gynephilia refers to sexual attraction toward adult females. The kin selection hypothesis posits that androphilic males help kin increase their reproductive output via kin-directed altruism, thus offsetting their own lowered reproduction and contributing to the fitness of genes underpinning male androphilia. Support for this hypothesis has been garnered in several Samoan studies showing that feminine androphilic males (known locally as fa'afafine) report elevated willingness to invest in nieces and nephews in adulthood. Also, recalled childhood kin attachment and concern for kin's well-being are elevated among Canadian androphilic males (i.e., gay men) and positively associated with childhood feminine gender expression. This study examined whether these childhood patterns were cross-culturally consistent and associated with adulthood kin-directed altruism in a Samoan sample. Samoan gynephilic men, androphilic women, and fa'afafine (N = 470) completed measures of recalled childhood kin attachment and concern for the well-being of kin, recalled childhood gender expression, and willingness in adulthood to invest in nieces and nephews. Fa'afafine recalled elevated anxiety due to separation from kin relative to men and elevated concern for kin's well-being relative to both men and women. Within groups, these characteristics were most robustly associated with childhood feminine gender expression and willingness in adulthood to invest in nieces and nephews among fa'afafine. These findings are consistent with the kin selection hypothesis and the adaptive feminine phenotype model, which proposes that a disposition toward elevated kin-directed altruism among androphilic males is associated with feminine gender expression.

Familial patterning and prevalence of male androphilia among Istmo Zapotec men and muxes

“…Research conducted on cisgender androphilic males in industrialized cultures has provided little support for the KSH [ 2 , 54 – 58 ]. In contrast, research conducted on transgender androphilic males in Samoa has repeatedly found support for the KSH by means of elevated kin directed altruism among fa’afafine [ 59 – 64 ]. Because the transgender form of male androphilia appears to be ancestral to the cisgender form [ 65 ], the former likely represents a better model when testing evolutionary hypotheses pertaining to male androphilia than the later.…”

Need for Alloparental Care and Attitudes Toward Homosexuals in 58 Countries: Implications for the Kin Selection Hypothesis

“…Multiple studies have shown that fa'afafine's altruistic tendencies toward nieces and nephews are significantly elevated compared to those of Samoan women (Vasey and VanderLaan 2009) and gynephilic men VanderLaan et al 2017;Vasey et al 2007;Vasey and VanderLaan 2010a). These tendencies manifest behaviourally in terms of increased allocation of money by fa'afafine to their youngest sibling's daughters (Vasey and VanderLaan 2010b).…”

Translating transgender: Using Western discourses to understand Samoan fa'afāfine

“…Here and elsewhere, the correlation between androphilia and femininity is easily read as fundamentally causal. The authors categorise fa'afāfine as “male” when testing their participants' sexual orientation using the Kinsey scale (Bartlett & Vasey, ; Vasey & Vanderlaan, ) and also describe masculine men who have sexual relations with fa'afāfine as to some extent androphilic—although fa'afāfine's masculine sexual partners are referred to as “straight” by Samoans, the group suggest that “straight man” has quite a different meaning in Samoa than in Western contexts because these men have sex with fa'afāfine (Vanderlaan, Petterson, & Vasey, ). It seems that ultimately these researchers see fa'afāfine as “men,” regardless of how they are understood within the Samoan sexual schema.…”

“…Here, I wish to focus on the exploration of fa'afāfine's “avuncularity” (how they behave as “uncles”) . These discussions are founded in the evolutionary puzzle supposedly posed by androphilia, which is assumed to be a genetic trait but is also an evolutionary “dead end” because of the apparent lack of reproductive potential (Vanderlaan et al, ). Thus, the continued existence of androphilia requires an evolutionary explanation (Vasey & Vanderlaan, ; Vanderlaan & Vasey, ).…”

“…I have argued elsewhere that this preference for heterosexual men as sexual partners, along with the common understanding that fa'afāfine adopt the “feminine” receptive role in sexual encounters (McIntosh, ; Shore, ), is a means of utilising Western sexual discourses to shore up their femininity. However, recent research suggests that the notion of fa'afāfine being seen as solely feminine in sexual encounters may be problematized by the fact that, according to Vanderlaan et al (), approximately a third of the “straight men” they interviewed in Samoa had performed fellatio on a fa'afafine sexual partner. This warrants further investigation.…”